paved :: marc weisblott

Most local online commentary about the first week of the FIFA World Cup consists of conflicted remarks about how this city feels like quite the multicultural wonderland – but do those people whooping it up in certain neighbourhoods after each game have to make so much damn noise? Prior to the legendary celebration on St. Clair Ave. W. after the Italian victory in 1982, such exuberance might’ve been confined to the occasional riot at a rock show, leading to antiseptic concert venues with a gauntlet of security personnel, as if mass-produced music could inspire such tribal devotion anymore. Now, each victory lap by a clown car packed with painted faces, traversing the avenues for seven hours after a winning goal, should be considered an organic triumph for public space. A posting at ecozine Treehugger takes note of the crowds huddling to watch midday games in front of the William Ashley China shop on Bloor, “a scene reminiscent of when people gathered in front of TV store windows to see Neil Armstrong step onto the moon”. Mercifully, the campaign to make Toronto qua Toronto seem more interesting for its own sake can also take a month off in favour of these siestas of football fixation. A couple of blogspots are keeping track the action from a local perspective, too: T.O. World Cup is a daily chronicle from blogger “Harding” – a diversion from his other sites T.O. Crime and T.O. Homicide – which has included a trek to Roncesvalles after the elimination of Poland, where the slated-for-closure Revue Cinema looked particularly forlorn, especially in contrast to the halftime clanging captured at College and Ossington leading up to Brazil’s victory, complete with cameo appearance from provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton. World Cup of Toronto is a similar guerilla caravan, although blogger “Cupcake Man” seems eager to seek out the fans of countries more likely to respond to a match result by getting even more inebriated, rather than marauding through downtown streets – like his ambitious trek to the Golden Lion in Etobicoke to share in the humiliation of Ukrainian fans, suddenly discovering that Hemingway’s in Yorkville is an Australian bar, and getting barred from a German bash at the Goethe Institute. Blackberry blogger Andrew Spicer, meanwhile, is letting the party come to him by trying to keep score of every flag that he sees.

Four newbies have secured their shot for a council seat in the City Idol contest – but Toronto’s first mayor with a MySpace looks to be heading into the summer with his job relatively unchallenged. Mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield’s pronouncement that “perhaps it’s time to phase out” the unions capable of grinding the TTC to a halt was followed by a sheepish backpedal, which did nothing to overcome the Toronto Sun’s conclusion that It’s plain, Jane has work to do, even while arguing that City Council has been a fiasco for the past three years. A more compelling municipal election subplot involves John Sewell challenging Joe Mihevc on the council ballot in St. Paul’s West, a scheme meant to keep David Miller honest on development issues, with Sewell already being endorsed by the anti-streetcar right-of-way brigade from Save Our St. Clair. Miller was confident enough to not bother seeking out a scrum after the provincial passage of the Stronger City of Toronto for a Stronger Ontario Act, which “landed with the excitement of an Alzheimer’s convention” according to Toronto Star columnist Royson James, even though The Globe and Mail’s John Barber noticed the conspicuous lack of amendments preventing lobbyists from continuing to “suborn local politicians with handfuls of cheques and hockey tickets”. The Liberal Party of Ontario celebrated the Act’s passage with a press release highlighting John Tory’s flip-flop on the topic of Toronto’s independence, sketching his trail of contradictory statements in the time between he was running for mayor and being installed as leader of the provincial Conservatives. Getting wider weblog action is Mark Steyn’s latest “book review” in Maclean’s, covering the alleged terrorist antics in Toronto, specifically a National Public Radio interview where David Miller engaged in “boilerplate Islamoschmoozing” in agreement with NPR’s stateside liberal media incredulousness that young male hostility could germinate in Canuckistan. Compare that to the aftermath of the gang battle that culminated in a twilight shooting spree on Boxing Day, belatedly returning to the headlines after a round of arrests – but given how there were no I Am Not Afraid days planned at the hockey game after 15-year-old Jane Creba was killed at Yonge and Gould, delusions of a global menace must be easier for civic leaders to rally against than those circumstances surrounding local gang warfare.

The celebrity status of Frank Gehry was mentioned by Toronto Star columnist Christopher Hume as the prime example of how architects have become pop cultural fodder, in a column rounding up results from the Pugly Awards, where public buildings gained online voter approval ahead of the complexes that people are paying to live in. No such coverage in The Globe and Mail, where John Barber had swiftly dismissed the premise as condescending, with awful website photography to match, summing up the Pugly enterprise as “the project of a self-appointed elite – the heiresses and their decorators, swilling Chablis at the abominable Spoke Club”. And ultimately not tapping into any kind of public consciousness if the local architecture obsessives at the Urban Toronto Forum have nothing to say about the outcome. The pseudonymous blogger Classic Quarters sticks up for the thumbs-down loser Glen Lake condo in the Junction, though: “The faux balconies are plainly stupid; but I’ve seen similar prissy features tacked onto similar sized upper scaled condos along mid-town Yonge Street.” But will the Pugly Awards sustain its mediocre approach to highlighting mediocrity for long enough grade Gehry’s transformation of the Art Gallery of Ontario sometime after the summer of 2008? While reconstruction of the AGO is accuring funds – now 83 per cent of its way to $254 million goal while not charging admission – you can’t yet pay to see Sketches of Frank Gehry in a local cinema, even though the Sydney Pollack documentary on the Toronto-born designer premiered at TIFF, and has been playing for the past month in other cities. While the film is destined for a PBS airing later this year, reviews for Sketches on the big screen have been favourable, since it provides an opportunity to contemplate how the creative process can most effectively flourish when you find what Pollack calls “a sliver of space in the commercial world where you can make a difference”. Response to the portrayal on The Huffington Post wasn’t nearly as kind, with reviewer Eva Hagberg noting the “grandfatherly schlub schtick” overshadows examination of how those doodles become structural reality: “Instead, there are only slyly self-aware nods to the consistent difficulty of the profession, small critical moments where it seems almost plausible that Pollack might rip open the slickly schlumpfy image Gehry so comfortably projects.”

During the past year of unprecedented conversation about local transit systems, nothing was met with more curiosity than the plot by the Toronto Community Foundation to give an aesthetic overhaul to stations along the University subway line, as rendered in November. And while the TTC itself can’t figure out how to market a T-shirt, philanthropists were rallying around the idea that stops adjacent to highbrow cultural locales merited interior designs consistent with the buildings above ground – especially since St. Patrick, Osgoode or Museum aren’t often thought of as more than perfunctory ports linking Union Station with Spadina. Confirmation that the idea is on track was provided at a press conference in the foyer of the Royal Ontario Museum, announcing that a $2 million contribution from the provincial government has enhanced a million bucks from the estate of Yorkville preservationist Budd Sugarman, and an anonymous donor who tossed in $500K after the elimination of the capital gains tax on charitable gifts of securities. William Thorsell, CEO of the ROM, might as well have been damning City Hall for not taking the lead on this kind of project, though – speaking of the “deterioration” of the neighbourhood over the past 15 years, Thorsell is now relieved that “the miasma of the situation” is being overcome. So, with the fresh determination to define the corner of Bloor St. and Avenue Rd. as the “Museum Arts District”, if the completed Daniel Libeskind crystal doesn’t frighten everyone away, the underground will be graced with a collection of thematic pillars. TTC chair Howard Moscoe showed up on the morning that both Star and Sun editorials were calling for his ouster, to boast of how “the early Canadian washroom architecture” would finally transcend “the character of a jail cell”. But then Moscoe also murmured something about a renewal of hope for the condo development overdue for erection on the site of the McLaughlin Planetarium, until plans for a 46-storey monstrosity were shouted down by annoyed locals – whose protest was further motivated by the fact that the condo was being tailored to zillionaires. Now, such accusations of elitism hurled at the ROM can be countered with the argument that its virtual virtues are being absorbed each day by bleary-eyed commuters. Similar plans for the other stations – and reincarnating Dupont as a Casa Loma stop, too – will proceed if the right tax shelter seekers find the Museum plans stimulating enough.

[Museum tile pic via Craig White's definitive TTC stations Flickr set]

Discussion surrounding the closure of the surviving repertory movie houses in the west end has evolved since initial reports – the entire Festival Cinemas chain will be calling it a day on June 30, with only The Fox in the Beaches due for survival under the current ownership should a new renter come along, although there are no such plans for The Paradise. Those armchair theatre managers offering ideas on how these second-run nabes could’ve survived were refuted with a comment on blogTO from owner Chris McQuillan, who inherited The Kingsway, The Revue and The Royal from his late father, but has found it tough to justify paying for new projector bulbs. While two-month-old mainstream studio fare increasingly became the staple of the cinemas – increasingly overlapping with DVD release dates – resulting in fewer avant-garde offerings, McQuillan explains that the locals accustomed to spontaneously leaping from their homes to luxuriate in the theatre seats aren’t going to be drawn to three-night Peter Greenaway retrospectives; conversely, there’s a lack of parking spaces to accommodate everyone in town who might be inclined to trek out for a unique screening, especially given how the subsidized Cinematheque Ontario fills this niche from its centrally located AGO home. The merciless maintenance costs associated with these early 20th century buildings doesn’t help sustain the concept of keeping popcorn prices low, either. Yet another comment from McQuillan, dropped at the North Ronces Blog, goes into further detail. Business is up slightly in 2006, but the publicity surrounding the closure hasn’t drawn more patrons: “I don’t want to see a Heritage designation because it will erase, in a second, hundreds of thousands of dollars that we have invested over the many years that we have operated The Revue,” he writes. “No one will buy the property – including other cinema operators – it makes no sense to do so.” But members of the Ronscesvalles community aren’t convinced, and their Save The Revue website includes a petition addressed to Councillor Sylvia Watson, with hopes that a Toronto Preservation Board meeting on June 22 will get it listed on the historical inventory. The Royal, meanwhile, which has been designated as a Heritage Building, may have its fate sealed Friday (June 9) when offers are due on its $2.7 million price. And even though The Kingsway hasn’t inspired any such preservation rally, its run as the first Festival Cinema will wrap with the most sentimental selection, Casablanca.

FURTHER reading at Cinema Treasures [Pic above via Dave's Brain]

“When it comes down to it, I personally think that the strike was a bad idea, but the people screaming and pulling out their hair and calling TTC employees ‘terrorists’ should at least remember that they’re not the only ones in this city with worries, and they should at least consider the possibility that TTC workers might have had some legitimate cause for being frustrated with management, whether the strike itself was justified or not. Alas, the art of putting oneself into the shoes of another is not one that is widely practiced.” [torontology] … “One thing that makes me laugh and cry at the same time while reading comments across the web: the number of people using this as an excuse to blast the ‘left-wingers’ in City Hall and in general. That style of blame-gaming fills me with disgust, where political platitudes outweigh the issues at hand.” [JB's Warehouse and Curio Emporium] … “Or maybe we can force the union leaders to take a round-trip walk from Yonge and Finch down to Bloor and Kipling … their wills would be broken in a matter of blocks.” [Patrick Byck] … “So from the Firm’s perspective, yesterday was like any other day. Tasks delayed: none. Projects delayed: none. Deadlines missed: none. Industry humming along as usual, in other words. … Congratulations, Bob Kinnear and Local 113. … Keep on fighting 21st century commerce with 19th century tactics; while you were out on picket lines, I was in air-conditioned comfort at home.” [Taylor & Company] … “They have wasted an opportunity to raise important issues about security not just for staff but for the travelling public as well. They have alienated riders against the very TTC staff who will now have to put up with more abuse thanks to a strike they, the operators, didn’t call. They have missed the chance to present a clear bill of complaints about TTC labour management practices, assuming they have a coherent list to present.” [Steve Munro] … “Some eavesdropping confirmed that the transit workers striked (struck? stroke? stricken?) without warning yesterday. Clearly they heard I was coming, and this was their final payback for my anagram map.” [RobotJohnny] [Pic of shuttered St. Andrew via Naked KnitGirl]

PREVIOUSLY: Long discussion thread following live strike mash-up.

“Would we have so many TTC strikes if the majority – that is, the relatively decent, albeit overpaid, workers – kicked out the bullies and strike-hunters at the first sign of crap like this? Would our society not work better if we stopped supporting the bad apples and started kicking them out? Then the whole basket would no longer rot.” [talk talk talk] … “This guy, Adam [Giambrone, TTC vice-chair], has a passive, calm manner. I actually want to listen to him and hear what he has to say. He states the facts, and doesn’t interject his personal opinion or stupid comments into his dialogue.” [The Transit Rider] … “I am reminded of the blue-collar job ads in the local newspaper for my hometown where, more often than not, minimum wage jobs are advertised with the caveat ‘must have own car.’ Strikes like this provide more ammunition for that attitude, which I personally feel is as discriminatory as ‘whites only’ or ‘no Irish need apply’.” [a puke green world] … “You know how in the old WW2 movies, the evil prison camp leader would capture someone escaping and so to deter others from doing it he would line up everyone and randomly count off people and have them shot?” [nonessential.org] … “You see Susie, that man was born with a genetic defect where he sweats much more than any normal person. That’s the reason he’s soaking wet and smelling.” [The Blog That Ruined Everything For Everyone] … “I guess today no one can get off at ‘Caring Street’ or ‘Kindness’ Station, let alone any other stop.” [freddie.ca] … “If this was Bangladesh people would be calling in the army, grabbing a hockey stick and beating up the striking workers.” [mezba's blog] … [Sign pic comes via a soundtrack for everyone]

With the hearty City Hall endorsement of the 2015 World Expo, the lack of criticism for the idea seems peculiarly un-Toronto – although the tax revolt duo of Rob Ford and Michael Walker kept the vote from being a unanimous one. With the claim that just nine of over 10,000 visitors to the consultation website left a negative comment, the National Post goes trawling for those two-time Olympic bid opponents at Bread Not Circuses, only to find them taking a nap. Toronto Sun antagonist Rob Granatstein admits to being unable to find an expert to lash out at the World’s Fair idea – besides the majority of unscientific respondents to their online poll – except council candidate Adam Vaughan, who figures these projects are now more of a European thing. The past month of rah-rah coverage from the Toronto Star, including a column by Councillor Brian Ashton detailing how the port lands will be rehabilitated through these plans, was countered by a letter from one Jurgen H. Racherbaumer, arguing that mass tourism and the internet has rendered the disposition of Expos 67 and 86 a relic of another era, leaving “the risk of Toronto being left with obsolete fairgrounds and other world exhibition ruins”. Furthermore, a comment dropped on Spacing Wire by John Spragge of environmental equity group Air/Fair Toronto points out the hope of seven million international visitors would mean 30,000 extra take-offs or landings during the summer months – so, isn’t it ironic how downtown waterfront promoters don’t decry the collateral damage when it’s not making noise in their own backyard. Yet, the benefits are generally being regarded as irresistible, so long as the province is willing to commit $700 million in shortfall coverage. The other city venturing to host the fair, Izmir, Turkey, hasn’t made much noise in English – their formal announcement declared the theme as “New Routes to a Better World/Health for All”. While the U.S.A. withdrew from the International Exhibitions Bureau five years ago, websites have been set up by those striving to see the event in both Atlanta and San Francisco. And a group in NYC, wanting to bring the concept back to Flushing Meadows on the 50th and 75th anniversaries of its legendary fairs, were swiftly shrugged off by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who didn’t know they were holding these things anymore.

Considering how easy it is for any smallish local business boasting emotional ties to their neighbourhood to seek out mass media sympathy when the cash register doesn’t ring like it used to, the sudden announcement by Festival Cinemas that The Kingsway (3030 Bloor St. W.), The Revue (400 Roncesvalles Ave.) and The Royal (608 College St.) screens will go dark after June 30 seems uncommonly blunt. A report in the Toronto Star cited the exasperation of the offspring of cinema entrepreneur Peter McQuillan, who died in October 2004, what with limited interest in catching the latest Hollywood dreck for $3 less during the three-week window between the multiplex run and DVD debut – even though the remaining theatres in the formerly sprawling local chain, The Fox (2236 Queen St. E.) and The Paradise (1006 Bloor St. W.), will presumably continue to offer that service not unlike how the old-fashioned bijou experience has remained intact in two independent places along Mt. Pleasant. A picture show aesthetic built on the recycled rotation of Eraserhead and The Rocky Horror Picture Show couldn’t sustain forever, so it’s remarkable enough that the sentimentality surrounding these movie houses endured for three generations – and beyond, if the right buyers are found. A 2001 picture book by John Sebert, The Nabes: Toronto’s Wonderful Neighbourhood Movie Houses, shows a city that once seemed to boast a glorious neon marquee on every other retail strip, in spaces since taken over by some of the fugliest exteriors in town, prior to more recent preservation-minded efforts like the retrofit of The Runnymede (2225 Bloor St. W.) into a Chapters store. And after a melodramatic change of proprietorship in the late 1990s, the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St. W.) has done a pretty astute job of serving a wide range of distinct sensibilities, something which might’ve gotten lost when the Festival Cinemas perfected the formula of sending gently-used blockbuster reels on a tour of the city, alongside the occasional art house smash deemed too dangerous for Cineplex. Nonetheless, the idea of these three surviving old-school projectors switching off on the exact same day is melodramatic enough for the movies: The Royal’s beacon status in Little Italy is contemplated in comments on Torontoist; the disappearance of The Revue is noted on the North Ronces Blog in contrast to a Starbucks invasion a few steps away; and journal-keeper Dave Collins, who was taking tickets at the opening of the reincarnated Kingsway, mourns the closing with photos, including two old theatre seats now planted in his garden.

UPDATE: Paradise is also no more; Fox is up for lease. [BlogTO]

The official kick-off for David Miller’s effort to remain mayor featured a video message of support from environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Which was perfectly appropriate considering how much the campaign packaging owes to the second term of Bill Clinton, who successfully ignored whatever passed for dissent, while being too charismatic to allow accusations of incompetency to stick. But with the limp launch of Jane Pitfield’s effort to unseat Miller – with shrill remarks about criminals, condos and cadgers – the real competition may yet emerge. “Same Great Mayor. Same Great Hair.” reads one of the posters for the confidently postured candidate, while other tritely acerbic slogans serve to remind us that he’s tall! honest! and nice! The robust crowd at the imitation genuine Steam Whistle Brewery ranged from seasoned veterans of media launch buffet lines to others who appeared to genuinely need the free meal, and drink tickets are always a good motivation to fill out a volunteer form. Miller’s speech provided a soundbite related to every topic he’s dealt with in 30 months on the job: The mayor’s only reference to his opponents came in mentioning how the city was a surprise sliver medalist as Best Employer in the Toronto Sun Readers’ Choice Awards – coming in second to Pizza Pizza, it turns out. Bumper stickers reading i ♥ my mayor reflect his self-assurance in the midst of the urban renaissance that seemed completely unfathomable during the reign of Miller’s predecessor – maybe the 2003 indictment from Mel Lastman, “You’ll never be Mayor of Toronto because you say dumb and stupid things”, deserves a place on the campaign literature, too. Lastman’s recent return from his undisclosed location, which began with his labeling the current batch of councillors “a bunch of duds”, was really just a warm-up for the expansion of Bad Boy appliance stores with a reception at the Lobby bar on Bloor, suggesting a slicker sales pitch since the days of son Blayne perspiring in his prison stripe pajamas, trading lines with a Clinton lookalike. Mercifully, a thorn in the side of City Hall’s post-amalgamation era of slippery lobbyists, Adam Vaughan, has traded his reporter badge for a run at Olivia Chow’s vacated council chair, intriguingly driven by his argument that the recent overload of downtown high-rise residences will reach a crisis point once too many of the current swinging single occupants start to breed, and either bail for the suburbs, or feel lost in the urban jungle – although fears of a steel and glass sequel to St. James Town, as these clusters of condos find their value dwindling with the years, might only be pre-empted by slipping birth control ingredients into bottled water.

PREVIOUSLY: Who wants to save this plain Jane campaign?